Confronting Change: peak oil and the big society

01 November 2010 By Jo Homan 0

Films of the event here.
Event pics here. Southbank Centre tickets here. What should we do in the face of dwindling oil resources and climate change? Offering their expert perspectives, Michael Meacher MP, Rob Hopkins, Alexis Rowell and Polly Higgins will take part in an important discussion for Londoners wishing to consider our future at national, regional and local levels.

ROB HOPKINS, co-founder of the first Transition Initiative – Transition Town Totnes – as well as the Transition Network (an umbrella organisation supporting local groups), will be speaking on how the Transition Movement can offer vital insight into the new government's vision of a 'Big Society' from the point of view of sustainability and environmental responsibility.

How do Transition Initiatives match the coalition’s drive for volunteers and decentralised power? How can we marry the grass-roots focus of Transition with the top-down approach of local and central government?
What would such a marriage look like?

ALEXIS ROWELL of Transition Belsize will be speaking about his new book ‘Communities, councils and carbon – what we can do if governments won’t’. Drawing from his successful campaigning as a Camden Councillor, Alexis will shed light on how Transition Initiatives can influence local government and help to bring about the extensive relocalisation which is so urgently needed.

POLLY HIGGINS, author of Eradicating Ecocide: Laws and Governance to Prevent the Destruction of our Planet (http://www.thisisecocide.com/) is a barrister and international environmental lawyer. She will have just returned from the UN climate negotiations and will present the case for using international law to facilitate mass mobilization and innovation for a post-peak oil society. She will also be acting as chair for the evening.

MICHAEL MEACHER MP, former Minister for the Environment under Tony Blair and a passionate environmentalist, will discuss the imperatives for an honest assessment of peak oil and its implications in government planning - something that so far only Bristol City Council has taken seriously.

Thursday 16th December 2010 ... 6.30-9.30 ... Level 5 function room, South Bank Centre, London, SE1 8XX. Tickets £9, £4.50 unwaged, students and OAPs. Ticket office: 0844 875 0073 - open 9am - 8pm, 7 days a week. Or book online, here.
Design by Alex Head.
Michael Meacher MPRob Hopkins (picture by Stephen Prior)